


This Progression of Steps

by partypaprika



Series: The Steps Between Us [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 11:59:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5743027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/partypaprika/pseuds/partypaprika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two hundred and eighty-three days since waking up from a coma, Finn's now eking out a life in a cantina, barely a step above sanitation for an evil empire. At least until Poe Dameron walks in. That hutt-spawn idiot of a pilot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Progression of Steps

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to Y and bitofpixiedust for beta reading services!

The cantina where Finn worked was somewhere in the middle of sleazy and seedy. It was the kind of place where employee identification wasn't mandatory and, more favorably, it rested outside of the purview of the First Order, should any of its members happen to be passing through the drukhole of a city that Finn now called home.

When Finn had first arrived in Svitalos, fresh off a space transport, he hadn't thought much of it. Ugly once-temporary buildings that must have been decades old dotted the city, having long since become permanent. However, Finn had noted that the city spread fairly wide—large enough to get lost in—while still being not important enough to warrant any significant First Order or Resistance attention.

While it was impossible to avoid the First Order or the Resistance altogether, the main visitors to the city appeared to be smugglers, bounty hunters and outlaws. And while the last thing that Finn wanted was to have further dealings any of those groups, he had to admit that he was now part of the same illustrious club. Like it or not, Finn didn’t have a whole lot of choices going forward about who he associated with.

So after Finn had helped unload the freighted goods from his transport ship, he had grabbed the few meager belongings that he’d managed to acquire on the trip to the Outer Rim and headed into the main part of town to find a job. After a couple places had politely (or not so politely) turned Finn down without any sort of identification or relevant work experience, he stumbled upon the Arysia Cantina, home of cheap alcohol, off-tone live music and what felt like hourly brawls.

The manager had taken one assessing look at Finn before asking Finn when he could start. Finn had given a half shrug and said, "Now?" The manager had nodded once and started walking through the crowd, fairly sizable even though it wasn't yet midday. She had clearly expected Finn to follow her, so he had. "Basic rules: serve as quickly as possible and don't let the customers get frisky."

So Finn had done as she suggested. Arysia's wasn't a great living and Finn knew that there was a rodent infestation in the closet-sized space that he called home. But "it could be worse," had long since become Finn's mantra. As horrible as Arysia's could be, every day there was a day that Finn didn't have to live as a Stormtrooper. And that was good enough.

 

 

Something in Finn’s periphery caught his attention when he started delivering drinks to a rowdy Majan group. Finn fought every instinct telling him to bolt. Instead, Finn carefully placed the rest of the drinks that he had been carrying onto the table even as the hairs on the back of his neck rose.

Wary, Finn glanced over his shoulder, but there were no weapons drawn or fists up. Everything seemed to be perfectly calm or at least as calm as it ever got in Arysia's. Finn frowned, confused at what could possibly could have caught his attention. And then Finn saw it. Or rather Finn saw _him_.

It had been 283 days since Finn left the Resistance base for the Calaron Sector. He expected to go the rest of his life (for however long it happened to be) without seeing any familiar faces from the Resistance. After all, what would they be doing on a backwater planet like Fwillsving? But there was no mistaking Poe Dameron, even without any of his trademark pilot's gear.

Finn stood, frozen, his heart pounding wildly, before he instinctively threw himself behind the nearest pillar. Finn’s thoughts came rapid-fire, one on top of the other. How in the galaxy did the Resistance find him? Were they going to make him come back? Maybe they had decided he knew too much useful information about the First Order. Or maybe he knew too much about the Resistance—he knew how to locate their base, after all. They had realized that Finn was too much of a liability.

And then, belatedly, Finn realized that the Resistance had much better informants than a former sanitary worker. Plus, if they thought he was too much of a liability, they probably wouldn’t have let Finn leave in the first place. So, why in the galaxy would they even want to find him?

Finn took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm himself, before he peeked around the pillar. Sure enough, Poe still stood there, a serious look on his face, but he didn't appear to be looking around for Finn. Instead, Poe fixed his attention on a shorter figure just in front of him currently headed to the back of the cantina. That's when it clicked—whomever that was, he or she must have been what brought Poe here, not Finn.

Regardless of Poe's reason for being here, his presence was bad news. Really bad news. Even though Poe wore a hooded robe instead of his usual pilot's gear, anyone who got a look at his face would instantly know who they were looking at. This may have been the Outer Rim, but even out here Poe was one of the more famous faces of the Resistance and alternatively adored or despised.

Poe quickly scanned the cantina and Finn shot behind the pillar, hoping that Poe hadn't registered him. By the time Finn's heartbeat slowed back to a relatively normal rate, the group of Majans were looking at Finn suspiciously, so Finn crept out behind the pillar. Poe walked further into the cantina, trailing whomever he had presumably set out to meet, which meant that Finn had likely escaped any kind of detection.

Although, Finn thought almost hysterically, why would Poe even think to look for him here? Of course he wouldn't be seen.

Now that Finn knew that he hadn't been spotted, he weighed his options. He could turn back around and go serve the group arguing in the corner that hadn't left since they'd arrived yesterday morning like he had originally planned to. Or, he could try to surreptitiously check out the Poe situation.

Prudence dictated that Finn completely ignore Poe's arrival. He had left the Resistance so that he would be as much out of harm's way as an ex-Stormtrooper who had destroyed a Starkiller could be. Potentially being recognized would put a significant damper on that plan. After all, he eked out a life here. It may have not been a great one, but he had a place to live. He had friends, or at least had finally gotten to the point where most of his fellow servers begrudgingly tolerated his existence.

On the other hand, Poe had saved his life more than once when Finn tried to escape from the First Order. And Poe wasn't exactly being stealthy here in Svitalos. Someone needed to watch out for him, because Poe clearly failed at self-caution.

Besides, as long as Finn stayed in the shadows and didn't address Poe, Poe was unlikely to even recognize him. Perhaps, even more importantly, the longer that Poe stayed in Svitalos or Arysia's Cantina, the higher a risk that First Order members would show up. So really, the best thing that Finn could do for himself was try to gauge the situation.

“Finn, is everything alright?” Sicllan, one of Poe's fellow servers, asked. Of all the servers, she was the nicest to Finn. It probably helped that when her boyfriend, a tall Yaka mechanic, came into the cantina, Finn tried to comp his drinks. Pinkwim had a penchant for green fruity drinks that Finn enjoyed as well and he even tolerated Finn’s attempts at humor when Pinkwim had had a few.

“Fine, totally,” Finn said, although he was sure that his wild eyes belied any attempt to look nonchalant. “I am super fine. Best shift of my life.” Sicllan looked a little concerned, her yellow eyes squinting in Finn’s direction.

“You don’t look fine,” Sicllan said. “You look like you’re getting sick. And we do not need a repeat of Bryjac sweeping through the staff and putting half of us out of commission.”

“I feel so great right now,” Finn said, trying to discretely look around to track where Poe had gone. “I could fight an army of Barabels. Bring it on—see a master at work.”

Sicllan gave him another look. “Fine. You better get a move on then.”

"Absolutely," Finn said, doing a chop in the air as an example. Sicllan gave him a concerned look though so Finn just grabbed his serving tray. When she had her back turned, Finn mentally groaned and sighed before heading in the same direction that he had last seen Poe and his companion going in.

 

 

Poe sat at a small table in a back corner facing his partner, a short and squat man whose face was partially obscured by the hood of his robe. He kept nervously checking the room, a feeling that Finn understood all too well. Before the man could spot Finn staring at him, Finn turned his back to the table and busied himself picking up the glasses from a group of easy-going drunks laughing at one of the nearby tables.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me," Poe said.

"I don't have much time," Poe's partner said after a few seconds. "Just being seen with you is dangerous enough."

"I understand," Poe said. "I can't tell you how important this information is. How much help it will be."

"I wish I could say that I was doing it for the right reasons," the contact said. "But I suppose the important thing is that I'm doing it all."

There was a moment of quiet and Finn risked a look over in time to see the contact hand something over to Poe. The look of relief on Poe’s face was palpable as he carefully tucked the item into an inner pocket of his robe. Finn also felt oddly relieved that the transaction had gone smoothly.

Once the two completed the exchange, the contact scanned the room again, his eyes darting from side to side so Finn turned back around, making sure to have his back to the table. And then Finn saw the two heavily armored women, guns drawn, heading towards Finn’s corner of the cantina. Both women directly focused on Poe and his contact.

No. Oh no.

“Poe,” Finn yelled in warning, without thinking. Poe whirled around, immediately pulling back defensively against the nearest wall. But it wasn’t enough—the women already had a clear sightline across the cantina to Poe.

There was a moment, perfectly clear, when Finn saw the taller of the two women take aim. Finn felt himself try to scream but the sound got stuck in his throat and, instead, Finn watched the shot hit Poe, knocking him back into the booth. Finn must have been moving before the taller one fired her weapon because suddenly Finn found himself in the booth, hands reaching out desperately for Poe.

For an awful moment, Finn knew that Poe was dead or just about it when Finn could see blood covering Poe's body. But then, Poe managed a shallow breath and locked eyes with Finn. Poe grimaced and brought his right hand up to his left shoulder.

“We’ve got to get you out of here,” Finn said, already starting to help Poe up. The shooting had created pandemonium in the bar, creating obstacles for the bounty hunters, but Finn of all people knew just how little time that really bought them.

Poe looked at Finn, wild-eyed for a second. “Finn?” he said. “What are you doing here?”

“Now is not the time,” Finn said, hauling Poe up instead of attempting to gently lift him, hoping that it didn’t make the injury worse. Poe was heavy, but apparently on adrenaline alone, Finn made record time to the nearest stairs down to the server’s area. The women would catch up with them quickly if Finn didn’t get Poe out of Arysia’s fast.

“Get out of the way!” Finn yelled as he came through the area. The other servers scattered and Finn caught more than a few shocked looks in his direction as he passed through. Finn saw a blue blur pushing some of the other servers back and he slowed down in confusion.

“What are you doing? Go!” Sicllan yelled. Finn obeyed and continued bulldozing through everything in his path, knocking things over in every direction. But that didn’t matter, nothing mattered except getting out of the cantina before the bounty hunters caught up to them.

Finn and Poe emerged out of the cantina into a crowded side street. Finn made for the busy main street ahead, hoping that the dark evening and loud crowds would provide enough cover.

“How are you doing?” Finn asked Poe, Finn’s own heart beating so rapidly from fear and adrenaline that Finn thought it might pop out of his chest at any second.

“I’ll live,” Poe said tersely.

“Can you make it another few minutes,” Finn asked as they turned onto the main street. Finn wrapped his arm tighter around Poe, trying to make it look like he was just helping a drunk friend. "We’re heading home. It’s about ten minutes away, do you think you can make it that long.”

“I’ve made it farther with worse injuries,” Poe said. “So I think my chances are pretty good.”

Finn risked a look at Poe. “If these are your good chances, I don’t think I want to see your bad chances,” he said.

Poe gave a weak laugh. “I need something to balance out the dashing good looks,” he said. “Otherwise it would just be unfair.”

 

 

Despite his injury, Poe had a good grip on the situation and suggested that Finn take a few detours in case the bounty hunters were still following them, blending into the crowd as they went. After what felt like forever, they arrived at Finn’s building. It was incongruous enough—the outside, like most of the other buildings in the area, had once been painted maybe about twenty years ago. Finn would bet good money that no one had made a move to touch it up after that.

They walked through the building until they got to Finn's door. By this time, Finn supported most of Poe's weight as Poe had gradually leaned more heavily on Finn during their flight from the cantina. Poe looked alarmingly pale and Finn kept jerking his head over to look at Poe every time Poe inhaled harshly.

When they got to Finn's door, Poe stopped short. "Are you sure this is ok?" Poe said.

Finn wanted to laugh. Or maybe cry. They had passed the point of no return when Finn had fled from the cantina, one arm holding Poe tightly. "Of course," Finn said instead. "Welcome to my apartment." He ushered Poe inside before any of this neighbors came out and saw them.

Finn’s apartment itself wasn’t much to look at. There was a small bed, a table and two chairs. There were a few kitchen prep tools, but old habits had been hard to shake and Finn still found himself mostly sticking drinking his nutrition rather than eating it.

Finn gently placed Poe on the bed and then immediately went back and locked the door. After a second of consideration, he jammed one of the chairs underneath the handle as well, before he started looking for his medpac underneath the bed.

“I really appreciate this,” Poe said. “But I’ll be fine. I need to get back to my ship.” Apparently now was the time for self-sacrificing heroic stupidity.

“You need to stop bleeding,” Finn said. “I feel like that should be your first priority here. Plus, if those bounty hunters have figured out you are here, that’s probably the first place that they’re looking.” Clearly the women wanted Poe alive. While they hadn’t been wearing First Order insignia, they were probably bounty hunters acting on First Order authority, which meant that First Order reinforcements would be arriving imminently. Who would also begin the search. Finn was so screwed.

Poe made a token protest that Finn ignored. _Heroes_ , Finn thought and kept trying to feel for the medpac. He knew it was there, somewhere.

“Aha!” Finn said triumphantly as he pulled the medpac out from behind a box filled with clothing. He opened it up and took out a bacta patch, gesturing at Poe’s shoulder. Poe tried to lift up his sleeve but the blood had started clotting, so Finn brought out a disinfectant and cleaned up the area before putting the bacta patch on. Once Finn finished that, he pulled out the medpac’s scanner, placing the scanner near Poe’s arm.

"Very nice skills," Poe said appreciatively.

"What can I say?" Finn responded. "I can put on a mean bacta patch. Stormtrooper 101."

Poe gave Finn a skeptical look. "Really?"

"Of course not," Finn said. "Honestly, I don't know if those of us in the general cannon fodder ranks ever covered first aid. Stormtrooper 101 was essentially just Galactic Empire or First Order propaganda."

Poe laughed. "There's the First Order that I've come to know so well."

Poe leaned towards Finn, grimacing at the pain. He opened his mouth to say something and then stopped, ruefully shaking his head.

“What?” Finn said.

Poe gave a kind of half laugh. “Nothing,” he said. “Just…my mind is spinning. You. Of all the places that Marlaw and I could have met. Right here on Fwillsving. In your cantina," he paused for a second. "And you should know that it's pretty rare that I'm at a loss for words."

"I guess I'm just lucky," Finn said, feeling himself smile at Poe despite himself.

"What are you even doing here on Fwillsving? You can’t get much more backwater than this place," Poe said.

Finn gave a half-shrug. It was true. And the reason that Finn had picked it. “Well,” Finn said. “I had hoped it was out-of-the-way enough to avoid getting into trouble, but I hadn’t taken you into account. You just...defy cautionary measures.”

Now that Poe's arm had been taken care of, Finn felt himself start to feel a little lightheaded. Finn hadn't been lying when he had said that he had hoped to avoid any more excitement that came with the Resistance and the First Order. It had been a long time since Finn had been scared like that.

Finn tried to focus on Poe, right there in front of him, but Finn couldn't stop the sensory memories flaring up. The certainty that he was going to die as Kylo Ren advanced on him. The split second of shock when Kylo Ren had stabbed Finn in the back with his lightsaber.

"Finn, you alright?" Poe asked. Finn felt a little shaky, so he carefully sat down next to Poe, trying not to disturb Poe's arm.

“Why are you here?” Finn said, in lieu of responding. Poe still needed to recover—Finn was fine and not worth worrying about. “This isn't exactly a safe place for you. There's a lot of people here who would easily turn you in for a lot of money. As evidenced by that new hole in your arm.”

“It’s classified,” Poe said, apologetically. "But I would tell you if I could." He winked at Finn to lessen the blow of it and Finn just rolled his eyes. Even when injured, Poe still had his usual charm.

“How is your shoulder feeling?” Finn said. “Would you like something to eat or drink?” Finn started to get up but Poe put his hand on Finn’s arm, tugging him back down.

“It’s feeling a lot better,” Poe said. After a moment of contemplation he said, “Although I wouldn’t say no to some bandages, I think I have a few more scratches that I should patch up.”

“What?” Finn said. “Where?” Poe gestured at his right side, lifting up his shirt slightly where Finn could see two large cuts, probably from when they’d been trying to get through the cantina. Finn felt guilty all over again as he grabbed a few bandages. Poe started reaching for it with his good hand but Finn ignored Poe, moving his hands out of the way.

"Pushy," Poe noted as Finn lifted up Poe's shirt.

"Only with you," Finn said. "I bet you would be shocked to hear that everyone here thinks that I'm a quiet server who takes direction well."

Poe raised an eyebrow. "It really wouldn't," he said quietly as Finn applied the disinfectant. "Although they're missing out," he concluded a little bit louder.

Finn shrugged as he applied the bandages. When he leaned back to look at his handiwork, he saw faint scars splayed intermittently across Poe's side. When Poe caught Finn staring, Finn flushed and looked down at his hands, suddenly conscious of Poe’s body.

"I like to live on the edge," Poe said, chuckling in response to the unasked question, subtly diffusing the awkwardness that Finn had just created.

Finn laughed and shook his head. "I think you left 'on the edge' several blaster shots ago," he said. "At best, I would say that you've got one hand on the edge that you're hanging from."

Poe smiled widely. "You know, we missed you when you left the base."

Finn had been on the Resistance base for about three weeks in total, only one of which included Finn actually being conscious. "You did?" Finn said, completely surprised.

"Yeah—I mean aside from the general gratitude for you saving not just my life but practically billions of others' lives—you're a smart guy. You keep a cool head in a fight, adapt to new situations and don't give up. The Resistance can always use someone like that."

Finn wasn't sure what to say. It was, without a doubt, the nicest thing that anyone had ever said to him. Back with the Stormtroopers, a mission without a reprimand had been the closest to praise he'd ever received. And then with Arysia's, no one cared about Finn as long as he delivered drinks unless they found an excuse to dock his pay for property damage. The old guilt about leaving everyone behind after he woke to find Rey had left already, by all accounts in healthy condition, flared up. "I, uh," he said eventually. "Thank you, but after the Stormtroopers—I couldn't. I'm sorry."

"No, no, no," Poe said. "I completely get it. If I were you, I would have put as much space between the First Order and myself. I mean, I only spent ten minutes with Kylo Ren and it was more than I could take. I can't imagine having to spend a lifetime with them." Poe sighed. "I just wanted you to know that you were missed. We missed you on base. I missed you."

Finn risked a look over at Poe. Poe had a serious look on his face, wide and open, and no one had ever said that they missed Finn before. There was a long moment where Finn wanted to say something, but nothing came out.

"Although," Poe said, pretending to think. "If you hadn't left, then you couldn't have saved my ass this time. It's a conundrum."

Finn couldn't stop himself from smiling. Before he could respond, the door burst in.

 

 

The two women from earlier stepped through the now-smoking remains of Finn's door, blaster pistols aimed at both Finn and Poe. Finn's heart stopped completely. He was not going to make it out of this alive. Finn waited to feel regret about deciding to help Poe earlier, but instead there was a small flicker of comfort at the thought of dying with someone that he could almost consider a friend.

But instead of shooting, the tall one just jerked her head at the shorter one who appeared at Poe's side in a flash, binding his hands against his back. When Poe started struggling, the Taller said, "We have orders to bring you alive, but there are no such orders for him."

There was no question who she referred to and Poe instantly stopped moving. Finn knew that he should say something, anything. Poe needed to keep fighting and if only one of them could survive this, it needed to be Poe. But Finn couldn't stop looking at the blaster pointed right at him.

"It's ok," Poe said. "I'll be fine. Believe me, I've gotten out of worse scraps."

But, Finn wanted to say, I got you out of that worse scrap and now I won't be able to do anything. But nothing came out as Shorter finished binding Poe and pushed him roughly to his feet. She half dragged him to the room threshold and then started heading down the hallway.

Taller kept her blaster trained on Finn until the heavy sound of Poe being forcibly pushed forward started fading and then she disappeared.

As soon as she left, Finn’s heart started beating again, painfully loud in the complete silence. Holy space shit, Finn thought. What was he supposed to do now? Finn felt himself beginning to breathe quickly, panic rising. Poe was gone, Finn's apartment was in shambles and Finn had almost certainly been fired.

"Ok," Finn said out loud. "This is not the time to panic. You need to think." Finn forced himself to take slow, even breaths.

Finn needed to look at the situation rationally. The bounty hunters would be taking Poe back to their ship. Svitalos was too big for them to have landed a ship outside the city limits knowing that they would want to make a quick getaway. Which meant that they would likely be heading back to either Dorcdur or Laugtoye stations.

Finn had absolutely no idea which of the two they could have gone to. This wasn’t even his problem, Finn tried to tell himself, although it did absolutely nothing to stop the guilt. He couldn’t help but imagine Poe’s face when Finn had been threatened. Poe had given up any shot at trying to get away in order to make sure that the bounty hunters didn’t shoot Finn.

And this was entirely Finn's fault. The bounty hunters probably tracked Finn’s apartment by threatening his fellow servers. Finn should have anticipated that and taken Poe somewhere actually safe instead of the most predictable place in the galaxy.

"It's not my problem," Finn said to himself a few times. It did nothing. Finn groaned: there was no use lying to himself. It was his fault that Poe was in that situation in the first place. And even if hadn’t been Finn’s fault, he still would have wanted to help Poe. No wonder Poe was such an important figure for the Resistance if he inspired feelings like this in everyone.

Think, Finn told himself. Dorcdur or Laugtoye? Laugtoye was mainly used by large corporations, with better security and higher priced goods going in and out of it. The bounty hunters might have been operating under the authority of the First Order, but that didn’t mean that they would be welcomed with open arms in Svitalos. Dorcdur it was.

Finn started rummaging under his bed, pulling out a rarely-opened box. Inside it lay a modified Sonn-Blas blaster pistol. There must have always been some part of him that knew it would come down to this because Finn had bought it as soon as he’d made enough money to get it on the black market. Finn had regularly kept it in working condition. Finn took a deep breath and lifted it out of the box.

“I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing,” Finn said. “And I’m probably going to die. I’m an idiot.” But he stood up anyways with the gun, stuffing it and the medpac into a sack that he threw over his shoulder. He needed to get to Dorcdur before those bounty hunters did.

 

 

Finn tried to think of a plan on the way to the Dorcdur. He took every shortcut and back alley way that he could think of—anything to shave off time. The only advantage that Finn had on the bounty hunters was his knowledge of Svitalos. They may have had a head start on Finn, but Finn knew the city better, especially the back alleys and shortcuts that Finn had taken pains to learn and memorize in case the First Order showed up.

Alright, Finn thought. Dorcdur. What could Finn possibly do there to stop the bounty hunters from leaving with Poe? Strategy wasn’t really Finn’s strong suit. Finn hadn’t really found his strong suit yet, but he knew that when he did, it most likely wasn’t going to be with planning things.

Either way, Finn told himself, it didn’t matter how half-cocked a plan Finn had. Finn needed to have some idea of something he could do when he showed up, no matter how improbable. What would Poe do? He would probably just fly away.

If only had Finn had something that he was good at—he hadn’t ever really excelled at anything within the First Order. That’s why he had largely been based with sanitation. Although, Finn realized, there was something that every Stormtrooper learned well, even if it took painful practice and correction. He could shoot.

And with that, a half-formed plan came to Finn. It was perhaps the galaxy’s worst plan, but it was a plan. Finn began to run even faster.

 

 

By the time that Finn arrived at Dorcdur landing station, he was covered in sweat and breathing harshly. Finn had only the vaguest idea where to go in the station, but he knew to look for.

Finn ran through the station, bumping into people and eliciting a not insignificant amount of curses in his direction. He ignored all of it until he got into the hangar and ran straight for a group of mechanics.

“I’m looking for Pinkwim,” Finn said, wheezing it out in between breaths. The mechanics stared at him, nearly identical looks of disdain across their faces.

“What are ya lookin’ fer him for?” A scruffy woman asked, glaring at Finn.

“I’ve got-uh-an urgent mechanical issue,” Finn said.

The woman looked at Finn dubiously. “Super urgent,” Finn said. “I would really appreciate it—“The woman pointed towards one side of the hanger where a series of transports were stationed. She then turned back to the group, clearly indicating that she was done with Finn. Vaguely, Finn could make out the tale-tell gleam of Pinkwim moving across the way.

Finn risked a look around the massive hanger as he ran across it, trying to see if the bounty hunters and Poe had entered it yet. Currently, everything seemed to be business as usual. Bounty hunters generally brought with them a bit of attention and excitement, which Finn hoped would provide at least a small amount of warning.

“Hey, Pinkwim,” Finn said when he finally reached the edge of the hangar. Pinkwim carefully placed down a tool that he’d been holding in his hand. He raised an eyebrow at Finn.

“Finn, what are you doing here?”

“I need your help,” Finn said, breathing hard.

“Yeah? Why, did the cantina somehow break a ship part?” Pinkwim said sarcastically.

“Not exactly,” Finn said. “Do you know which ship belongs to two female bounty hunters? They probably came in today, they were wearing dark colored heavy armor.”

Pinkwim gave Finn an appraisingly look. “Perhaps,” Pinkwim said. They both knew that Pinkwim likely knew who every ship in this hangar belonged to.

“I’ll give you a bunch of free drinks the next time that you come in,” Finn said.

“That ship over there,” Pinkwim gestured towards an older Pacifier. Finn could see the heavy modifications had been made to it over time—probably to make it more deadly and capable of killing someone such as himself. Finn involuntarily gulped.

Of course, as if on cue, the two bounty hunters and Poe entered the hangar. Poe had clearly been given a sedative because his head lolled to the side and, again, Shorter supporting his weight. Both of the bounty hunters brandished their weapons and the mechanics and other assorted workers in the hangar hung back.

Finn took a deep breath. It was now or never. When he looked over at Pinkwim, Pinkwim had a half smile on his face. The asshole probably already knew what Finn wanted to ask.

“Can you create a diversion?” Finn asked. “I need to get one of the bounty hunters away from the ship without arousing their suspicion that I’m here.”

“If I do this for you, what will you do for me?” Pinkwim said.

“Uh,” Finn desperately thought. The bounty hunters were getting closer to their ship. Finn turned his back slightly just in case they happened to glance his way, although it was doubtful they could see him over at this side of the hangar. But Finn had already made one stupid decision today, better be safe than sorry.

Finn started frantically feeling through his pockets. He had a few credits, nothing substantial enough for more than a meal or two. His sack didn’t reveal any hidden valuables either, just the gun which Finn desperately needed and a medpac, which Pinkwim wouldn’t want anyways.

“Drinks. I will give you even more free drinks. For a month,” Finn said in a rush, although the probability of keeping that promise was small. Finn could all but guarantee that if he actually succeeded in getting Poe free of the bounty hunters, Finn would not be returning to Fwillsving. If he wasn’t successful, well, he would probably be dead.

Pinkwim gave Finn an assessing look. “Three months,” Pinkwim said. The bounty hunters were almost at the ship. If Finn couldn’t get Pinkwim to help him out then Finn was completely out of luck. That was the only plan that Finn had. The next option just involved rushing the ship, which had a zero percent chance of working. Maybe even a negative probability.

“Yes, fine,” Finn said as quickly as he could. “All the free drinks that you want forever, just hurry!”

“Alright,” Pinkwim said. He started walking towards the center of the hangar towards where the women were currently headed. Finn ducked behind the nearest ship in the repair area.

“Is that your ship?” Pinkwim called out to the two women when he got closer to them. He gestured at the Pacifier. The two women looked at Pinkwim suspiciously.

“Who is asking?” Shorter said.

Pinkwim fixed the woman with an unimpressed look. “Is that a trick question? I'm asking because there was a collision earlier in the hangar today and it looks like it might have damaged your ship. I will show you where the damage is.” Without waiting for a response, Pinkwim began heading towards the ship, clearly expecting one of the women to follow.

After a moment, Taller nodded at Shorter. Shorter transferred Poe’s weight over and then followed after Pinkwim. Taller continued heading to the ship, so Finn started to try and get closer.

He went from ship to ship, until he got close enough to the bounty hunters’ one to evaluate the situation. Pinkwim was still talking to Shorter and they were just out of eyesight around the corner of the ship.

“You’re going to need to do some repairs on the hyperdrive,” Finn heard Pinkwim say.

“It doesn’t look that damaged,” the bounty hunter said, sounding slightly skeptical.

“Yeah, I only do this for a living,” Pinkwim said.

“Well, we need to leave as soon as possible,” the bounty hunter said. A small group walked past Finn, likely on their way to their own ship. And that was Finn’s cue, it was now or nothing. Go big or go home. So Finn started walking next to the group, hoping that he wouldn’t be seen.

When Finn got close enough to the ship, he quietly snuck up the gangway. Finn took out his blaster and kept it carefully positioned in case Taller should be right there at the entrance of the ship.

I’m going to die, Finn thought hysterically as he crept on board the ship. I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die. He froze when he reached the entrance of the ship, unsure of which direction to go in. The ship wasn’t all that large and Finn could hear the sound of someone moving nearby so Finn flattened himself against the wall. There was no way he was making it out of this alive.

Finn forced himself to think about the situation calmly. Everything after enlisting Pinkwim’s help had been hazy at best. His strongest option was probably hiding on the ship until after lift-off and then waiting until the two bounty hunters separated again. That way, he could take them out, one by one, and then have time to find where Poe had been stored. If Finn tried to take out Taller now, there was a very high chance that Shorter would rush on board and kill Finn before Finn had been able to free Poe.

That would, however, leave them in space. But, Finn knew that Poe had managed to wrangle more difficult spaceships in even more threatening circumstances. Although, Finn thought, that did assume Poe would be conscious—and no, that was too many variables for Finn to think about. He needed to focus on the now. Everything else could be figured out later.

Heavy steps started up the gangway so Finn threw himself into the first hiding spot that he could find—it being where they kept their tool supplies and barely big enough to fit Finn and the tools after Finn quickly replaced the wall paneling.

Finn forced himself to take deep, quiet breaths, despite the loud pounding of his heart.

“All good?” Finn heard Taller say.

Shorter grunted right near Finn. Finn held his breath. “That idiot Yaka thought that there was something wrong with the hyperdrive. It just had a few scratches on it—nothing urgent.”

“Good. Sit down, we’re lifting off.”

There was more movement outside Finn’s spot, but thankfully, Shorter didn’t linger too long, heading in the direction of Taller’s voice. As Taller began initiating the take-off sequences, Finn heard a series of beeping indicating the gangway lifting up and the engine starting to warm up.

It was really happening: Finn had stored away on a hostile bounty hunter vessel in order to try and attempt a rescue. In space. As one did apparently.

After a few more minutes, the engines began rumbling loudly indicating that take-off was imminent. And then, they were off, making their way through the hangar as the ship’s wheels came up. Suddenly, the aircraft thrust into the air, the acceleration pushing Finn further back against the tools.

In order for Finn’s plan to work, he had to get control of the ship before they made the jump to hyperspace and entered First Order space. So, once the acceleration lessened, Finn grabbed some of the tools and carefully opened up the wall paneling. He snuck across the corridor to where it branched off to the back part of the ship, away from the cockpit.

Finn took a deep breath, counted to three, and then threw some of the tools at the wall.

“What was that?” Taller shouted from the cockpit. “See what that was. Dameron better not have escaped.”

“Yes, yes,” Shorter said.

Finn took aim and waited. Sure enough, Shorter came down the hallway, blaster outstretched, but stopped and rolled her eyes when she saw the tools. “Tools fell out,” she yelled down the ship.

When she bent down to pick up the tools, Finn moved on her in a second, the blaster pressed up against Shorter’s head and Finn pressed the trigger before Shorter even realized what had happened.

Finn caught the body but there was no way of muffling the sound of the blaster pistol and Finn could hear cursing from the cockpit.

“What was that?” Taller yelled. Finn pulled back the body into the connecting corridor so that it wasn’t visible and flattened himself against the wall. Sure enough, Finn could hear Taller’s footsteps as Taller got closer.

“Greerich?” Taller said. “What’s your status?” Taller’s steps slowed when she didn’t get a response and Finn knew that she would probably have her blaster pistol out, ready to shoot.

You’ve got this, Finn told himself. He had the advantage of surprise. As soon as she stepped within view, Finn needed to shoot and not miss.

Within a few seconds, Taller had almost approached the intersecting corridors. Finn waited until Taller swung around, gun pointing out, and immediately shot. The shot went off her armor, but it pushed her off balance, forcing her shot up so that it bounced off the ceiling. Finn shot again, but she moved, kicking at the tools on the ground in Finn’s direction and using the distraction to push herself up.

Finn threw the wall paneling at Taller and when she ducked, shot another blast at her, which she dodged this time. Finn shot again just as Taller did and Finn felt an exploding pain from his left arm. Finn felt another burst down on his leg and Finn stumbled, trying to regain his balance.

Taller bared her teeth at Finn and adjusted her aim, just as Finn shot. This time it glanced off of the armor covering the space between Taller’s shoulder and neck and hit Taller in the head. Taller fell back against the wall and then didn’t move.

Finn didn’t move for a few seconds and then his right leg gave out and Finn pitched forward, going down hard. Taller still wasn’t moving but Finn crawled over to check. She stared up at the ceiling, eyes blank and the blaster hole in her head visible, so Finn pushed himself away until the body was out of his immediate sight and leaned against the wall.

Finn closed his eyes, trying to focus on breathing and not the two dead bodies in the corridor. In and out. In and out. In and out. He stayed there for who knew how long until he felt the ship buckle beneath him.

“Oh no,” Finn said. “The ship. There’s no one flying the ship.” Finn dashed into the cockpit. He was no pilot, but even he could tell that the immediate problem was that they hadn’t yet cleared Fwillsving’s gravitational pull. Taller had probably been preparing to enter into hyperspace before she came back and found Finn, so there had been no need for her to ensure that they were far enough from the planet to orbit the planet rather than fall back into it.

They needed to get farther away from Fwillsving and fast or else the ship was in for a very rough landing.

“Ok, ok,” Finn said, sitting down and looking at the huge array of controls, buttons, dials and screens in front of him. “How do you fly this stupid piece of junk? I’ve only gone ahead and saved Poe just to kill him far more painfully when we smash into the ground.”

Finn started pressing buttons at randomly. What he really needed was Poe here. Poe could fly just about anything. For a second, Finn thought about going and finding Poe—wouldn’t that solve his problems?

Poe was presumably in the carrier hold somewhere, but Finn had no clue where that would be. In the time that it could take to find Poe, the ship would likely start falling into the atmosphere faster. There was no guarantee that Finn could get Poe here in time to land the ship on Fwillsving. And that assumed Poe was conscious. The last time that Finn had seen Poe, he’d been unconscious and had been dragged onto the ship by Taller.

Alright, that meant that Finn had to figure this out. Finn took a solid look at the equipment in front of him. Taller had been operating the plane, presumably getting it out of Fwillsving’s atmosphere. So, taking a deep breath, Finn put his hand on the throttle. Gently, he began to push it forward.

The ship practically leapt to attention, immediately shooting forward hard enough to push Finn back in his seat. He could hear the faint clattering of the tools hitting the walls behind him, which he ignored.

Pushing the throttle seemed to be working. Fwillsving, which had been taking up about a third of the cockpit shield shrunk to the very corner of shield. Just when Finn felt ready to take a nice, deep breath, a bunch of sensors started beeping loudly.

“What?” Finn said. “What are you telling me?” Frustratingly, the ship did not respond. Although within about fifteen seconds it became clear as another ship entered the cockpit’s field of vision, heading straight for Finn. Of course it was.

The good thing was that the ship hadn’t begun shooting. Unfortunately that was the only good thing as the ship kept coming at Finn, clearly expecting that Finn would get out of its path. Finn grabbed onto the stick next to the throttle and pushed forward. The ship dropped suddenly and Finn flew up, hitting the ceiling of the cockpit before falling to the ground, but it must have been successful because the sensors stopped beeping.

Finn lay on the ground for a few minutes, eyes closed as he took stock. They weren’t falling back into Fwillsving, check. They weren’t about to hit another spaceship, check. The bounty hunters were down permanently, check. Finn’s left arm and right leg hurt and were still bleeding, which was less than ideal. He would need to bandage them soon, but Finn had survived them so far. Which left—Poe. Unexpectedly, Finn’s chest clenched painfully as he realized that Poe could have been hurt even further during Finn’s attempt to get the ship under control.

Gingerly, Finn got up. He took a moment to utter a silent prayer that the ship just stay as it was before he started walking towards the back of the ship. It took a bit of exploration but eventually, Finn located the prisoner hold underneath the flooring and carefully crawled down. It took a minute for his eyes to adjust to the darker environment, but when they had, he spotted Poe in the corner of the hold.

Thankfully, Poe had been buckled in, presumably to prevent any runaway attempts, although it had done double duty and kept Poe secure. The buckles didn’t hide the injuries that Poe had already sustained though—there was bruising on the left half of Poe’s face and Poe would have a black eye within the next few hours. Finn also catalogued some blood on the crown of Poe’s head as well as over Poe’s shirt.

Finn imagined that once Poe had been taken from Finn’s, he had probably put up a stronger struggle which the bounty hunters had probably rewarded him with by beating him and then sedating him. Or perhaps vice versa.

Finn carefully placed his fingers against Poe’s neck, feeling for a pulse. At the slow and steady heartbeat, Finn breathed a sigh of relief, his own heart pounding loudly. For a moment, Finn’s chest hurt so much that Finn felt a little dizzy, so he sat down next to Poe and tried to convince himself that Poe was ok and going to be fine. Poe was alive. He had a pulse. It was going to be ok.

Finn kept wanting to reach out again and touch Poe, as if that would convince the pounding in his chest that Poe was going to be alright. Instead, Finn held on tighter to his arms, digging his nails in hard enough to ground himself until he felt calm enough to begin to undo Poe’s restraints.

 

 

Poe woke up all at once. Finn saw Poe stiffen slightly, his eyes still closed and then Poe’s entire body went rigid with tension.

“Hey, hey,” Finn said. “It’s me, Finn, you’re safe.”

Poe’s eyes opened at that and he looked at Finn, a look of pure confusion on his face.

“Hey, you’re alright,” Finn said. “We’re safe. And I’m so glad that you’re awake.” Finn tried not to sound as pathetically grateful as he felt that Poe was now conscious and could take charge of the situation, but he wasn’t sure that he succeeded.

Poe gave a weak laugh. “I don’t think that you’re nearly as happy as I am to see you. The alternative was those lovely ladies that escorted me here or Kylo Ren. And let me tell you, your face is so much nicer.”

Finn laughed. “It’s nice to know that I would win in that popularity contest,” he said.

“If I’m voting, you would win in any popularity contest,” Poe said seriously. “And I can’t believe you’re here. What happened?”

“It’s a bit of a long story,” Finn started.

“Well, I don’t think I’m going anywhere fast,” Poe said, so Finn started with how he had tracked Poe down in the Dorcdur hangar.

When Finn finished, Poe gave a low whistle. “I would say that you should have stayed safe back where you were, but my self-interest is too strong,” Poe said.

Finn shrugged, feeling awkward.

“No, seriously,” Poe said. “Finn, look at me.” He paused until Finn turned to look at him. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“I just,” Finn said. “Couldn’t let you die.”

Poe studied Finn, an intent look on his face as if he was trying to figure Finn out. Finn’s heart gave an odd little jump and felt his face growing hot. “We, uh, need to get you patched up,” Finn said, turning and rummage through his sack which had miraculously made it through everything unscathed.

Finn pulled out his medpac. “You just keep racking them up, don’t you? I bet the ladies and gentlemen love it.”

“You know it,” Poe said and stopped short. “Wait, is that blood all over your shirt?”

Finn nodded sheepishly. “Blaster shot.” Poe gave him a look. “Sorry?”

Poe huffed out a sigh and then held out his hand. “Medpac.” Finn handed it over without protest. Poe carefully rolled up Finn’s sleeve and applied the bacta patch and a bandage over it to make sure that it was secure.

“Anywhere else that I should be concerned about?” Poe asked. Finn gestured at his right leg. Poe gave Finn another look. “Has anyone told you that you’re supposed to dodge the blaster shots, not get hit by them?”

“I think they skipped that lesson in Stormtrooper 101,” Finn said. “Probably because it was the propaganda class.”

Poe gave Finn a dirty look, but he couldn’t help the corners of his mouth turning up.

 

 

After Poe finished administering first aid to Finn and started to clean himself up, he stood up. “So let me guess,” Poe said. “You need a pilot.”

Finn smiled. “I need a pilot.”

Poe pretended to think it over. “I suppose I can help you out. Although,” Poe paused, a slightly guilty look on his face. “There’s a slight hitch in those plans. We first need to go back to Fwillsving.”

Finn stared at Poe. “What is it with you and going back to planets where people are trying to shoot us?”

“I may have hidden the information that Marlaw gave me back in Svitalos,” Poe said.

“You left it back on Fwillsving? Why would you do that?” Finn asked. Even though Poe had applied bacta patches, both Finn’s arm and his leg started hurting as if his body was imagining getting shot all over again.

“If I had known that you would be a big hero and save the day, I would have kept it on me. But, as I was fairly confident that I was being sent to my torture and ultimate death, I wanted to prevent the information from falling into the First Order’s hands,” Poe said, matter-of-factly. “Ah, hindsight.”

Finn groaned. “I hate you. I really really hate you.”

 

 

Poe brought down the ship outside of the city in the forest. They armed themselves with weapons from the bounty hunters’ stash and headed towards the city. It now approached dawn, which made them much more visible targets, so once they got into the city, Finn stopped Poe.

“Wait here,” Finn said. “I’ll be back.”

Finn returned ten minutes later. “Here,” he said and thrust an armful of items at Poe. Poe started looking through them.

“You want me to cover up this gorgeous face?” Poe said, holding up protective eyewear and a mask that would obscure the lower part of his face.

"That is exactly what I would like you to do," Finn said. "I will also be covering up my own face in a feeble attempt to disguise myself in case we run into anyone searching for us." Finn started pulling on a full face mask, but Poe reached out an arm to stop him.

"Hey, wait a second," Poe said. "I know that what we're doing is dangerous and that I'm asking you to put your life at risk for me again. There's a reasonable chance that something could happen to us. And I wanted to do this in case we don't make it out the other side."

Before Finn could puzzle that out, Poe stepped into Finn's space and kissed him. It was brief, Poe's lips pressing against Finn's while Finn stood still, muted in shock. But then his body responded, letting Poe deepen the kiss before he pulled away.

"Good motivational speech," Poe said, throwing an unreadable look at Finn. "Let's go." And then he took off, adjusting his mask to cover his face, expecting Finn to follow.

“What?” Finn said, but Poe started moving further into the city, so Finn put on his face mask and took off after Poe. He forced any questions that he had about the kiss to the back of his mind—if they survived, then Finn would allow himself to think about this. But right now, he had a mission and Finn needed to devote all of his mental faculties to it.

Poe walked at a fast enough pace to cover ground, but not enough to draw attention for being out of the ordinary. When Finn caught up to Poe, he stopped Poe for a second and readjusted Poe's hood so that it obscured more of his face. Poe looked at Finn for a second and then opened his mouth to say something, but Finn cut him off.

"Here, you should follow me," Finn said. "I know the best way to get to get to my apartment." Poe nodded once and then Finn slipped into a side street, Poe sticking right to his side.

 

 

It took them about twenty minutes to make their way through the city to Finn's building. Finn refused to take any chances after the last round, so he used the most obscure ways that he could, hoping that it would work and they would avoid any detection. When they arrived at Finn's building, they didn't see any of the usual signs of the First Order, although Finn didn't allow himself to breathe easy just yet.

As soon as they entered the building, Finn could hear noise coming from his apartment. His stomach sank.

"I've got this," Poe said, stepping in front of Finn. "Just follow my lead."

The two of them crept up to the apartment. The remains of the door were scattered everywhere which had left Finn's apartment open to anyone.

"It's scavengers," Poe whispered when they got close enough. "Three of them, going through your things. I don't see any First Order members or bounty hunter repeats." There wasn't much of value in Finn's room and he'd expected that it would happen at some point, but it still hurt, the thought of others going through his stuff and taking it for their own.

Poe jerked his head towards the door. "I'm going to scare them off," he said. Finn nodded and Poe stepped into the doorway and aimed his blaster in the room, shooting up at the ceiling.

Three heads popped up around the room. Someone had been going through the boxes underneath Finn's bed. Another through the few items Finn had in his make-shift kitchen and one had been going through his clothes. Finn wasn't all that surprised to recognize two of the looters as also living in the building.

"Everyone, this is my buddy's apartment," Poe said. "I'm going to count to five and everyone had better be gone, leaving anything they might have rudely picked up behind." Poe started counting and all three quickly moved out of the room.

"I'm sorry about that," Poe said awkwardly.

Finn shrugged. "It's not really a surprise. Besides, I'm not attached to most of this stuff."

Poe raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, instead turning and heading over to the bed. He bent over it and began to feel along the sides.

"Aha!" Poe said happily, pulling out a data drive that he'd wedged between the back of the bed and the wall.

"Great," Finn said, nervously checking at the door threshold into the hallway. "We've got it, now let's go."

"You sure you don't want to grab anything else from here?" Poe asked. Finn could hear running from a ways off, heading towards them. That was not a good sign. Poe had cocked his head too, indicating that he heard it as well.

"I think we should run now," Finn said.

"Yep, definitely."

They sprinted in the opposite direction of the sound, towards the back of the building. Finn risked a look back and saw four Stormtroopers turning the corner, the familiar horror of the white suit gleaming in the corridor. The Stormtroopers immediately started shooting and Finn and Poe started running even faster.

"Follow me!" Finn yelled when they got to the back door. He grabbed Poe's wrist and began running as fast as he could down the street. He took the first left that he came to and then another left, followed by a right. Unfortunately, it looked like the Stormtroopers were still on their tail as evidenced by the heavy blaster shooting coming at them, doing damage to the buildings and stalls lining the street.

"Faster," Finn yelled after a blaster shot zinged past his ear, entirely too close for comfort. Finn held tighter to Poe's arm and ducked into a large shop, pushing carts holding produce out of the way until they got to the back exit. They kept running, ducking into a few more shops until they were both certain that they weren't being followed anymore. When they finally stopped in an armor shop, both of them were wheezing for air.

"So it looks like we have a slight problem," Finn said when he could speak. "They definitely know that we're here. Back here. They must have been monitoring my apartment. And now that they know we're here, they're going to start scouring to find our ship. It's just a matter of time before they figure out its location."

"That's still our best shot. The First Order will be swarming any feasible hangar where we could find another one," Poe said. Finn winced. Right. "Unless you have some cool Luke Skywalker Jedi mind tricks up your sleeve, I think that means that we just have to get to the ship before them," Poe continued. "Plus, I have so many fond memories of our time in that ship, I don't know if I want to find another ship."

"But," Poe said, looking outside contemplatively. He grabbed Finn's wrist and began pulling him. "I think that I have a way to get us there faster."

Poe commandeered and jump-started one of the landspeeders outside. The owner wasn't all too pleased at being kicked off of his own craft, but Finn only felt a little guilty about it. Unfortunately they were spotted as they got onto the landspeeder, two Stormtroopers calling back for reinforcements and giving the direction that Finn and Poe were headed in.

"Can you handle shooting?" Poe asked. "I'll get us there—just make sure to shoot back at anything shooting at us."

"Wow, this feels familiar," Finn said, laughing despite himself. "You better get us there in better condition than back in Jakku."

"You make one small mistake," Poe said. "And you never live it down."

Finn didn't have a chance to respond because there were Stormtroopers coming from behind on a variety of land crafts, rapidly gaining speed. Finn began shooting at the larger crafts, aiming for the engine and hoping it would do some damage. Finn managed to take out one of the speeder bikes following them.

"Ok, I'm going to try and lose them," Poe said and then made a vicious left, almost dumping Finn off. Only Finn's quick reflexes and grabbing onto the seat kept him from ending up on the ground. One of the remaining speeder bikes crashed into a wall, which left the landspeeder with several Stormtroopers on it, shooting at Finn. Finn kept trying to shoot back but he couldn't seem to land a hit.

"How much longer?" Finn asked. "These guys are gaining on us."

"Shouldn't be long," Poe said. "We're going to need to move fast once we get there."

 

 

When they pulled into the clearing that they had left the ship in, the Stormtroopers were right behind them.

"Go!" Poe yelled from the front seat.

"No, you first," Finn yelled. "We can't get out of here without a pilot." Poe stopped the speeder and they both jumped out, dodging the blaster shots coming at them as they ran up the gangway.

The speeder behind them must have been broadcasting its location because Finn could see additional reinforcements coming in quickly as the gangway rolled up and they ran to the cockpit.

"Ok, let's try this again," Poe said as they got into the cockpit. He had a smile on his face and Finn was pretty sure that Poe was having the time of his life. "You do the shooting and I'll do the flying."

He began initiating the takeoff protocols so Finn took a look at the equipment in front of him, which was still nothing like a blaster. Trying to dredge up his knowledge from his previous adventure with Poe, Finn grabbed a hold of the controls and started shooting what he hoped were the laser canons.

As they began taking off, the shooting from below intensified until Finn took out the large landspeeder doing most of the damage.

"Alright, buckle-up," Poe said. "We're going into hyperspace as soon as we clear the planet." Finn didn't need to be told twice and he buckled into his seat.

The shooting resumed as soon as their ship cleared the atmosphere, this time from a large First Order ship. Finn aimed the laser canons and torpedoes at it, although, predictably, they didn't do much damage. Their ship shook as it continued to take damage.

"Sooner would be better than later," Finn mumbled.

"Almost there," Poe said and then the ship surged forward, the stars blending as the ship went into hyperspace.

 

 

They sat in silence for a few minutes as the stars blurred past them. Finn felt almost drunk with relief at their improbable success. He'd had to deal with bounty hunters, a repeat of the bounty hunters and his old favorite, Stormtroopers. And a kiss. Poe had kissed him.

Finn's cheeks burned as he remembered the kiss. Had it just been in the heat of the moment? Had Poe meant something more by it? Finn had never, in his wildest dreams, entertained the thought of Poe in that way, namely because Poe had seemed almost on a different level. Poe was smart, nice and regularly willing to do everything in his power for the greater good. Poe had to have plenty of people, people far better than Finn, who liked him.

"Anything on your mind?" Poe said suddenly. Finn realized that he'd been staring at Poe and snapped his eyes to the front of the cockpit.

“Do you have a boyfriend back on D’Qar? Or a girlfriend?” Finn said. “Wait, no. Was that a we’re-going-to-die kiss? Or another type of kiss?”

“No,” Poe said after a second. “No again. Kind of, but probably not in the way that you think. No, I don’t have a boyfriend. No, I also don’t have a girlfriend. That was a we-could-die kiss but not because it was we could die and that was my last shot. It was a we-could-die and I didn’t want to die without kissing you.”

“You didn’t want to die without kissing me?” Finn said slowly. “Why?”

Poe stood up and walked right next to Finn. “From the moment we met, I felt a connection to you. You took off that helmet and asked me to fly a TIE fighter and something happened. Something was there. When those bounty hunters took me away, I regretted never doing anything about it. And today when I woke up and saw you in the hold, I told myself that I wasn’t going to waste my second chance.”

Poe stopped and looked at Finn intently. “If it’s ok with you,” Poe said quietly. “I’d like to not waste that opportunity again.”

Finn nodded. “It’s alright with me,” he said, just as softly.

Poe leaned down and kissed Finn again. He kissed slowly, as if he was memorizing the feel of Finn’s mouth, and gently sat down in Finn’s lap.

“Is this alright?” Poe asked, once his full weight was on Finn. Finn’s hands moved of their own accord around Poe and gently ran up and down Poe’s sides. Poe had barely pulled back to speak, but even that distance feel inexplicably far.

“Yes, of course,” Finn said, a little helplessly. “How could it not be?” He brought up one of his hands to pull Poe back in. This time, Finn initiated the kiss. He felt clumsy next to Poe’s effortless grace, but Poe didn’t seem to mind.

They kissed until Finn felt punch-drunk, until his lips felt swollen and tender, until Finn wasn’t even sure how much time had passed, but Finn still protested when Poe finally pulled away, both of them panting slightly.

“We’re almost to the Ileenium system,” Poe said, more than a little regretfully. “So we’ll have to continue this on the base.”

Finn froze up. “I’m not,” he started and then paused. “I’m not coming back to the Resistance with you. I mean, I’m obviously on this ship with you which is going to D’Qar where the Resistance is, but I can’t stay there.”

Poe looked confused. “You’re not going back to the Resistance.”

“I can’t,” Finn said, the familiar guilt settling in his stomach. “I’m not ready to go back yet.”

“But you did all that today…You risked your life to save me and get me back to the Resistance. Multiple times. You took down a set of hardened bounty hunters and then took on the First Order reinforcements.” Poe said. “You’re important to this fight. More than you realize.”

“No,” Finn said. “You don’t understand. I fought today because I was fighting for you. You’re worth something to me. Even though I knew helping you would be the more dangerous option, I couldn’t not help you. Maybe the same thing that you felt back on that First Order ship, I felt as well. But that’s as far as I go.”

Finn took a deep breath and looked out to the side. He couldn’t face looking at Poe. “You’re the good guy—you’re built to stand up to them. Stand up for what’s right. I’m not like you—I’m a former Stormtrooper. I helped bad people do bad things for a long time. And I think that I always knew, deep down, what was going on. I’m not Resistance material. I’m not willing to put it all on the line like you.”

And I’m so scared, Finn thought. I know what they can do and I don’t want to die a horrible death.

“Hey, Finn, look at me,” Poe said after a second. Reluctantly, Finn turned his head back and looked at Poe. “I get it,” Poe said. “I understand.”

Poe cupped Finn’s face, pulling him in for a kiss. “I understand,” he said against Finn’s lips. Finn kissed back desperately, wishing that he had never said anything.

“Where are you going to go next?” Poe asked when they came up for air.

Finn was quiet for a few minutes. “I thought Senegar?”

“Where do you come up with these places?” Poe said, but his tone was fond and he hadn’t moved his hands.

“It’s a very analytical process,” Finn said.

Poe leaned forward and Finn felt the faint puffs of air as Poe began speaking. “Where you picked the most backwater place you could think of?” he said. Finn involuntarily looked down at Poe’s lips which were slightly swollen and red as well.

“Where I picked the first remote planet to pop into my head,” Finn said, but his words were so distant, so far away.

Poe softly stroked Finn’s side, Poe’s hand drawing abstract patterns against Finn’s skin. Finn shivered and then they were kissing again.

 

 

This time when the sensors started beeping, Poe detangled himself with a sigh. “Alright, I probably should actually do some piloting.” As soon as Poe stood up, Finn felt himself tensing up at the thought of D’Qar quickly becoming a tangible reality.

Poe moved back to his seat and started adjusting some of the dials and controls. “Hey,” Poe said, after a minute. Finn looked over and whatever was on his face made Poe frown. “Hey, do you trust me?”

Finn nodded. “Of course.”

“I promise you’ll get to Senegar,” Poe said. “Even if I have to fly you there myself. I’ll make sure that you’re safe.”

And even though Finn knew that between the two of them, Finn probably understood the concept of safety best, Finn felt an odd sense of comfort in Poe’s words.

“Alright,” Finn said. “I’ll hold you to that.” And with that settled, Finn leaned back into his chair to watch the green and blue sphere of D’Qar begin to grow bigger in front of them.

**Author's Note:**

> I opened up my notebook to start working on a longer Poe/Finn story I had been wanting to get out. But when I instead started writing this, I thought that it would be a nice short little fic. Here I am, 10,000 words later...whoops. I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
